Nineteen nights of MouseFest, Disney and Christmas - THREAD 1 - UPDATED 1/11 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Monday 10 December – part six: where’s that donkey of mine?!
The quietest of the characters was Piglet. We were convinced that he had been told about Mark’s previous behaviour.
A very subdued piece of bacon!
After that though, things did pick up. Tigger was fun, while Pooh was patting his stomach when he turned up, which was too cute.
Do you think Abby was excited to see Pooh bear?!
And this Pooh lover definitely was! [/b]
And what about my donkey? Oh my goodness, he was just so slow and by the time we had paid the bill, we still hadn’t seen him. Our server had already told me, when she knew he was my favourite, that if that happened, then to say something and they would sort it out for us, so that’s what I did, especially as lots of other people were having to do it as well. I love Eeyore to pieces, but it seems that night, so did everyone else and it was totally throwing out his rotation, as he just wasn’t getting to the tables in time.
Finally I saw him and it was worth the wait, with a huge hug and kiss. What more could a girl want?!
During the meal, something really cool happened. Steve presented me with the Eeyore Christmas ornament that he’d gone into the shop in Animal Kingdom to get for me yesterday, when I’d collapsed. In all the chaos that followed, the sale never happened and he had kept apologising to me for that. Of course, I was fine about it – I would far rather that he was saving me than buying it! But I was really touched when he handed me that. Thank you so much – I really appreciated it.
Crystal Palace:
Food 7½ 8
Service 8½ 8
Atmosphere 10 9½
Value for money 9 9½
Average score: 8.75
As we left, Wishes was about to start, but the park was packed. There was just nowhere to move on Main Street and we couldn’t get a good spot to photograph or video Wishes, so we decided to head out and beat the crowds. Some final photos on the way out:
We caught the resort monorail and fortunately, it left before the fireworks finished, but it did feel like it took forever to get back to the Grand Floridian.
Once there, we got a few more shots of the lobby and the entrance, as it all just looks so amazing at Christmas time.
From there, it was back to the Beach Club and off to bed.
Today we walked 7.82 miles. The weather today was hot, humid and sunny with temperatures in the 80’s. The best thing today was the castle lighting at night. The worst thing today was not being well enough to go on Big Thunder or Splash Mountains. The funniest thing today was the Whispering Canyon Café and Steve being put in jail with the ketchup. Today we tried the Whispering Canyon Cafe And the result was it was a lot of fun and some good food. The most magical moment today was seeing my donkey.
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